CHAMPIONSHIPS

CHAMPIONSHIPS; Team of the 80's (49ers) Topples Team of the 90's (Cowboys)

By THOMAS GEORGE,

Published: January 16, 1995

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15—
Look who just got caught.

America's Team. Grabbed by the loftiest point in its star. Shook silly until the shine turned dull.

The Dallas Cowboys had been doing the jostling. Dallas had trampled everything and everyone in sight in the National Football League on the road to two consecutive Super Bowl titles. There will not be a third. No, the Dallas Cowboys, so far the team of the 1990's, just got caught by the team of the 1980's. New history. Old history.

A new football song now.

San Francisco 38, Dallas 28.

The 49ers are strutting to Super Bowl XXIX in Miami versus the San Diego Chargers, not Dallas. The 49ers are shooting for a league-record fifth Super Bowl championship, not Dallas. The 49ers, before a record crowd of 69,125 fans this afternoon in Candlestick Park, played without mental and physical errors, played with a loose and daring style, and played without big turnover after bigger turnover.

Not Dallas.

And that made the difference in this National Football Conference championship game. The game started fast for the 49ers, who scored the first 21 points in under seven and a half minutes. Dallas contributed with a turnover before each of the three 49er touchdowns. You bury yourself like that on the road against an improved San Francisco defense and a typically swift and exacting 49er offense and you are buried in deep trouble.

And Dallas must have known it. This is much of the Dallas team that forced nine turnovers against Buffalo in the first of its two straight Super Bowl victories over the Bills.

"I cannot remember us losing the ball and being in a hole like that that fast," said safety Darren Woodson. "Maybe the Detroit playoff game we lost up there three years ago. This was weird."

Was Dallas tight at the start? Was the 49er defense forcing all of this to make the game clearly its own from the start? What happened here to make the turnover battle -- five committed by Dallas, one by San Francisco -- so one-sided?

"From the start, they were really working on stripping the ball and looking to create turnovers," said Dallas cornerback Kevin Smith. "Give them the credit."

"It was kind of like the Keystone Cops -- it was a laugher," Cowboys Coach Barry Switzer said of the Dallas string of early miscues; four of its turnovers came in the first half. "After that, you just say, 'How in the world can you win the ball game?' "

Dallas took its shots. It had the ball at its 16 with 1 minute 2 seconds left before halftime, trailing by 24-14. Dallas, looking good. A chance to close that early gap. Three plays and a lousy 23-yard punt later, San Francisco had it at the Dallas 39 with 30 seconds left. Only eight seconds were left when quarterback Steve Young zipped a pass to Jerry Rice against man coverage for a 28-yard touchdown. A 24-14 or closer game was suddenly 31-14.

That was the halftime score. And it was virtually over right then.

It might have been 21-0.

"Right off the bat the defense went out and stopped their running game and then the quarterback took some rugged shots all day," said 49er end Richard Dent of Troy Aikman. "In football, the ball sometimes bounces funny. That's just the game. But there are times you can make it bounce your way."

Maybe it was a combination of such that led to the 49ers' early scoring spree, which went this way:

*Dallas, on its third offensive play of the game, faced third-and-8 from its own 36. Aikman thinks he has man coverage. It is zone. He is looking for Williams on a square-out route. Instead, he finds 49ers cornerback Eric Davis. Davis returns the pass 44 yards for a touchdown. The game is 62-seconds-old and San Francisco leads by 7-0.

*Next series, third play again for Dallas. Aikman connects with Michael Irvin for 16 yards. Davis strips the ball from Irvin and safety Tim McDonald recovers at the Dallas 39. Steve Young passes for 29 yards to Ricky Watters. Touchdown. It is 14-0 after 4:19.

*San Francisco kicks off. Williams, the returner, is hit by Adam Walker and fumbles. Kicker Doug Brien recovers at the Dallas 35. Seven plays later, fullback William Floyd scores on a 1-yard run. It is 21-0, San Francisco. The game is exactly 7:27 old.

Sure, Dallas fought back, scoring on the next drive to make it 21-7 at the end of the first quarter. And Dallas lost the next quarter by only 10-7. And Dallas tied the third quarter, 7-7. And it even won the final quarter by 7-0.

But its fate was sealed in its start.

A year ago the 49ers were embarrassed in this title game against Dallas. Dallas boasted and predicted it would win and did. The look on 49er Coach George Seifert's face after that game was frazzled, and he seemed to be as beaten as his team.

So, the 49ers went to work with a single goal: to catch Dallas this season. They did it with free agency, with a revamped defense, with creativity on both sides of the ball. They did it by beating Dallas during the regular season here by 21-14. This one was more lopsided. More important. More sweet.

And Seifert wore a completely different disposition today.

He said, glowing: "That was certainly one of the most emotional sidelines I've been involved with, particularly in the first half of the game. The emotion with the football team in the locker room following the game was probably one of the most exciting experiences, certainly, of my life and also a lot of guys in the other room. I've got four championship rings. Nothing compares to the emotion of this one. Obviously, our work is not over, but this particular moment means a great deal."

Aikman threw 53 passes. Emmitt Smith ran for 74 yards. Irvin caught 12 balls for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Linebacker Robert Jones led with six tackles. None of it was enough for Dallas.

All of it meant everything to Young (two touchdown passes, one rushing score, no interceptions).

"We're playing one more game, the Super Bowl," Young said. "It's what I've always wanted. It will be a special stage to showcase this team. We deserve it."

San Francisco caught Dallas. It earned it.

Photos: The 49ers' Jerry Rice (80) beating cornerback Larry Brown to make a touchdown catch in the final seconds of the second quarter in yesterday's N.F.C. championship game. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times) (pg. C1); 49ers quarterback Steve Young getting cheers from Brent Jones (84) as he spikes the ball after scoring. (Barton Silverman/The New York Times) (pg. C4)